After Fourth Death in Burien, KC Sheriff Cole-Tindall Finally Responds to Deputy Mayor Mora

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April 29, 2024

Sheriff's "conditional" email prompts additional comments from Mora.

by Katie Kresly.Burien Deputy Mayor Stephanie Mora has been frustrated by King County's and King County Sheriff's Office's [KCSO] lack of communication during the past week.Early in March 2024, KC Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall directed county-controlled Burien police officers to stop enforcing Burien's most recent Camping Ordinance, claiming it was "unconstitutional." Since then, the downtown core of Burien has seen increased homeless camping. Public safety concerns are also on the rise.On April 27, after Burien experienced its fourth overdose death of a homeless individual in less than two months, Mora released her unanswered email communications to Burien-News, which we published. By Sunday morning (April 28), Sheriff Cole-Tindall sent a brief reply to Mora:

From: Cole-Tindall, Patti <Patti.Cole-Tindall@kingcounty.gov>Sent: Sunday, April 28, 2024 9:36 AMTo: Stephanie Mora <StephanieM@burienwa.gov>; Theodore Boe (Burien PD) <Theodore.Boe@kingcounty.gov>; Mosqueda, Teresa <Teresa.Mosqueda@kingcounty.gov>; Constantine, Dow <Dow.Constantine@kingcounty.gov>; Anderson, Jesse <Jesse.Anderson@kingcounty.gov>Subject: Re: Clarification to your press release

Council Member Mora:

King County’s position has been well explained in it’s prior communications with the City and its officials, including our willingness to enforce a reinstated Ordinance No. 827 if the city rehires social service support. Because this case is in active litigation, you should direct further comments on this topic through your legal counsel.

Sheriff Cole-Tindall

In response, here is what the Deputy Mayor sent to Burien-News:

Notice the “If”. They are putting more conditions.

If we do A & B then they’ll enforce. Before it was just do A (go back to ordinance 827) and we will enforce. Mind you we do have an RFP [Request for Proposal] to hire a different provider but that’s not good enough.

I don’t understand why they refuse to enforce ONLY the timed restrictions as it’s written in both versions of the ordinance while the court decides on the rest of it.

They claimed to only be against the map. If that’s the case why not enforce only the 7pm-6am. That would be a real win for everyone. Homeless get to sleep and rest on our streets without being asked to move, and during the day the entire public gets use of our public property including side walks again.This could all happen while the court decides on the rest of our ordinance, and while the city goes through the process of hiring a better provider that can actually help the homeless access the services and shelter they need.

I’m not asking for them to do something they feel is unconstitutional, I’m asking they enforce the part they were enforcing before. Which is written in BOTH versions of the ordinance.- Stephanie MoraBurien Deputy Mayor

Burien-News will share more information as it becomes available.